1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid jet apparatus (hereinafter also referred to as xe2x80x9cinkjet apparatusxe2x80x9d) which performs recording by discharging a recording liquid to a recording medium from a recording means, and a recovery device used for increasing the reliability of the liquid jet head (hereinafter also referred to as xe2x80x9cinkjet headxe2x80x9d). In the present invention, recording medium not only represents paper, but also represents textiles and three-dimensional media.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional inkjet recording apparatus comprises a recording head which performs recording by discharging a recording liquid, such as ink, to a recording medium from a nozzle (discharging opening). Therefore, the ink, when left in the nozzle for a certain period of time, gets clogged in the nozzle, which prevents printing or proper printing. Accordingly, it is necessary to constantly prevent ink clogging in the head in order to preserve good recording quality. To prevent ink clogging, conventional recording apparatuses of this type are provided with capping means and suction pressure generating means, as recovery means for overcoming ink clogging of the nozzle. The capping means caps the nozzle, while the suction pressure generating means forcefully sucks ink from the nozzle when it is capped.
The capping means and the suction pressure generating means are operated by drive power from a drive system for driving a carriage carrying an inkjet head and reciprocating in the main scanning dimension, or by drive power from a drive system for conveying a recording medium.
However, using the drive power of the aforementioned drive systems to operate the capping means and the suction pressure generating means increases the number of component parts and requires a complicated switching mechanism for switching from one drive system to another.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a highly reliable inkjet recording apparatus which uses fewer component parts, has a simple structure and is reduced in size, and a recovery apparatus for use in the recording apparatus.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a liquid jet apparatus, comprising: a recording head for discharging a recording liquid from a nozzle; a cap for capping the nozzle of the recording head; suction means for sucking the recording liquid from the nozzle, when the nozzle is capped; and a drive source used specially for driving the cap and the suction means; wherein the drive source is driven in one direction in order to cap the cap, and is driven in the opposite direction to cause the suction means to perform the suction.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a recovery apparatus for use in the liquid jet apparatus comprising a recording head for discharging a recording liquid from a nozzle, a cap for capping the nozzle, suction means for sucking the recording liquid from the nozzle when the nozzle is capped, and a drive source used specially for operating the cap and the suction means, wherein the drive source is driven in one direction in order to cap the cap, and is driven in the opposite direction to cause the suction means to perform the suction.
According to the present invention, capping or sucking can be performed by simply switching the driving direction of the drive source, resulting in a fewer number of component parts, a simpler structure, and increased reliability.
In addition, since the construction allows the recording liquid of a plurality of heads to be sucked simultaneously at one time as well as separately, ink is not wasted, running costs are reduced, and the required capacity of the waste ink container is minimized, so that the apparatus is further reduced in size.